K-9s sniff down contraband cell phones

Tuesday, October 20, 2009 | Nihar Sinha and Coryn Connelly-Cabreros

Sit, stay and...smell?

Trained dogs are a new resource Maryland prisons are using to hunt down contraband cell phones inmates use to conduct business from their cells. As technology develops, corrections officers try to keep abreast of ways to monitor inmates and limit their possible interaction with the outside world.

K-9s hunt down cell phones in prison: Photo Courtesy: Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services

According to Corrections Today, officials from the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) cite cell phone usage as one of the biggest problems today in prisons. Danielle Lueking, Deputy Public Information Officer for the department, said that cell phones "connect the inmates to the people and behavior that in many cases brought them into prison in the first place."

"Inmates have been known to order 'hits,' commit crimes, and circumvent security inside with cell phones," Lueking said. Inmates are able to get unrestricted access to the community that they otherwise should be denied.

According to a CNN crime piece, Maryland's corrections officials began the cell phone dog program in June 2008 to find cell phones that are often ingeniously hidden. Since cell phones are always developing technologically, they are becoming smaller and easier to conceal. While this makes it easier for inmates to hide them, visitors to smuggle them in, and even security personnel to distribute them, K-9s can smell phones in various hiding places.

"The dogs have detected them in books, under blankets, in shoes – they can even detect their scent if hidden in another electronic device, like a TV," Lueking said.

After the Maryland governor's office toured the Virginia corrections center, which was already utilizing the cell phone dog program, the K-9 unit for DPSCS developed its own training system based off the teaching process of breedersin California and the UK. Lueking said they started training and breeding their own "drug-sniffing" dogs, which saved Maryland thousands of dollars.

Inmates get creative with hiding phones: Photo Courtesy: Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services

It takes about two to three months to train the dogs to the specific scent of the cell phones, according to Lueking. The DPSCS K-9 unit uses different breeds for training, depending on the training and temperament of the individual dogs, but it's currently using Belgian Malanois and English Springer Spaniel breeds for cell phone sniffing.

"We cannot get into the specifics of how the dogs are trained, but much like bomb or drug-sniffing dogs, cell phones have a unique scent signature -- not something you and I would be able to pick up, but is distinguishable by the keen nose of a dog," Lueking said.

Andy Falco Jimenez is the owner of Falco K-9 Academy, which assists in training K-9s as detection dogs, patrol dogs, protections dogs and obedient household pets. Jimenez started the academy in 1995 to train dogs for police and rescue organizations. About five years ago, he began training K-9s to detect cell phones.

They are trained over and over to the specific scent of the cell phones and any attached hardware, such as chargers and batteries. Jimenez primarily uses working breeds such as German Shepherds and Labrador Retrievers, beginning training at about one to two years old.

"That's the time they are maturing up and develop a personality that they carry on the rest of their life. Once trained, they have the desire to search and hunt all the time," said Jimenez.

As of the fiscal year 2009, cell phone dogs have detected 88 phones in Maryland prisons.

Contraband cell phones are becoming a menace in prisons: Photo Courtesy: Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services